


Pistolas At Dawn

by rinskiroo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, Awkward Finn, Character Death, Charming Poe, F/M, Feelings, Gen, Kes is best space dad and also best dad in the west, Wolf BB-8, bros, come for the prompts, prompts, stay for the gifs in the comments, the Force is still very much a thing, writer writes bad guys poorly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-10-03 06:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 13,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10237604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinskiroo/pseuds/rinskiroo
Summary: The township of Jakku sits as a beacon as hardship and lawlessness spread across the Western Reaches.  Poe Dameron is a Ranger protecting the lands and people with his new partner Finn, recent First Order turncoat.  Maz Kanata runs the local tavern, but there's something not quite right about that one.  Rey lives alone in her railcar with her wolf, Beebee.Western AU, built with prompts.





	1. Flickering

**Author's Note:**

> March 1st: Flickering - 100 words - A dim room. A singular, flickering light. Maniacal laughter comes from the shadows.

The light was low in the cantina.  Just the flickering of the muted sconces and the candles of the few occupied tables.  A lantern sat on the old wooden piano as a tired girl in a dress too small pressed the keys in a song that should have been lively, but was as slow as the late night crowd.  A drunk whistled and tossed a penny her way.  He’d spent his last coin on cheap booze and didn’t have enough for anything else.

“That ain’t even enough for a song!”  the Ranger shouted across the near-empty cantina at the drunk.  “Go on home, Teedo!”

There was a chuckling laughter from the far end of the bar, slowly making its way down.  It was high-pitched and sweet, but carrying the weight of wisdom with her humor.  “Leave the paying customers alone, Dameron.”  Her fingers grazed across his shoulders as she moved around him.  Her hip, cover in a gauzy, blue fabric, came to rest just on the table.  She had a bottle in her hand that she slowly tipped, refilling his glass with the amber liquid.

“Maz, darlin’, I’d pay if you let me.”  He glanced up at her, giving her a wink.

“Who says I don’t?”  Her fingers continued their hypnotically graceful dance across the table, setting down the bottle and picking up his hat.  She set it onto his head just so, then pushed the brim upwards to make sure he could see her.  Her dark eyes darted just slightly towards the stairway leading upstairs.  “When you’re ready to settle your tab.”


	2. Towering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 2nd: Towering - 200 words - A character gets provoked, the result is a towering rage!

The door swung open, knocking loudly against the wall.  A young man with red hair stuck out his arm to keep it from swinging back in his face.  “Where is he!”  he shouted into the crowded cantina.  “Where’s that  _ traitor _ ?”

The usual marriage of noises, music from the band and the loud patrons enjoying the suppertime rush, quieted slowly and then all at once as boots clomped into the bar and the man pulled a baton from his belt.  He spun it in his hand once before slamming it onto a table sending plates of food and glasses to the floor.  At a center table, two men turned from their drinks to look up at the angry newcomer.  One was older, with grey hair and hazel eyes that were always hovering between amused and ‘I’m too old for this shit.’  The other, much younger with dark skin and short, black hair who somehow managed to look both guilty and determined.

Finn stood, hand resting on the empty holster on his waist.  Somehow it’d been hard to find spare pistols in this town.  “We don’t need to do this, Nines.  Talk ‘bout it like gentlemen.”

There was another crash as the baton hit the bar and the skinny, dark-skinned proprietor in her low-cut, blue dress yelling at him to knock it off.  Other patrons had started to get up and move out of the way of the impending brawl, making sure to take their drinks with them.  It was a mess of flailing bodies and overturned tables and people yelling.  Maz had sent a boy running to find the law.

It ended with a gunshot.

A pistol twirled around the old man’s finger before it found its home back in his holster.  Nines lay dead on the floor.  Finn, bloodied and breathing heavy, frowned at his once-friend now lifeless on the dirty, wooden floorboards.  He muttered a word of thanks to the old man who helped him to his feet.

“You better clean that up, Solo!”  Maz called.

When Dameron and Wexley burst in a few minutes later, the cantina had returned to its usual loud, jaunty nature.


	3. Stalk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 3rd: Stalk - 100 words - Oh, don't mind the person outside your window, character. They're just mad about you!

“Ma’am.”  Poe tipped his hat and smiled to a woman standing outside the bank fanning herself.  His hands went back to resting on his belt as he walked next to Finn down the main, dusty street of the town.  “I wouldn’t worry, buddy.  But we’ll keep an eye out.”

“I dunno, man.  The First Order… I don’t think they’re gonna stop.”  Finn’s boot kicked a rock, sending a puff of dust around their ankles.  “Nines and I were friends.  Grew up together.”

“You made your choice, and so did he.  Can’t play both sides in this.”  Poe hand slapped him on the shoulder and gave it a small squeeze.  There was another slight pause in their gait as again Poe tipped his hat to another young woman.  “Ms. Sella.”

Finn squinted slightly as he watched his friend and suddenly the topic of concern changed.  “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“You just smile at girls and they get all… weird.”

Poe gave him a slightly incredulous look, but turned back anyway to see Korr Sella’s eyes still following them down the road.  He gave her a wave with his fingers and she audaciously blew him a kiss from her gloved hand.  With a chuckle and a shake of his head, Poe turned back around and gave Finn another slap to the shoulder.  “Could be my good looks.  Or the badge.  Or how well I  _ ride _ .”

Finn was sure he saw Poe practically waggle his eyebrows, but took a few steps ahead away from him so he didn’t have to listen to anymore.  “I’m sorry I asked.”  When Poe ducked inside of one of the painted, wooden facades to meet with someone, Finn kept trotting down the road.  It was a small town so he had to take his time to not run out of space to walk before Poe was done.  He swallowed slightly when he spotted a girl haggling with two men over what looked like a loaf of bread.  He stood up a bit straighter and adjusted his belt, now heavy with the pistol Poe had given him to fill his empty holster.  He could help, he could be useful.  And she was cute.

One of the men gave her a push and he nearly rushed over there, his feet were already moving, but he stopped when he saw her push back.  The stick at her side coming out to whack the other on the hand before he could retaliate.  They had begun to try and shout back at her, but the wolf next to her, that Finn had failed to notice before, got up from its obedient sitting position onto all fours and had started to snarl at the men.  The girl placed a hand on top of the wolf’s head, giving both men a scowl before snatching the bread back and heading towards the mangy looking mountain horse she had tied up nearby.

Finn nearly startled as Poe appeared next to him and shoved his hat onto his head.  “Go.  They like the hat.”

Finn looked suspicious, and a little terrified, but he took a few halting steps forward.  After the awkward start, he screwed up his courage and adjusted the hat on his head.  He got a whiff of sweat and some flowery, lady’s perfume.  Internally he groaned, but turned his walk into an almost confident swagger as he approached the woman loading her saddlebags.

The reddish-orange-colored wolf turned first and gave him a warning snarl.  Then the girl, dirty, but still pretty.  Her brown hair tied back, but with tendrils escaping and whipping almost playfully around her face.  Finn swallowed again.  “You okay?  Uh, ma’am.”  He tipped his hat.

She quirked an eyebrow at him, giving him a long look up and down.  “Who’re you?”

“I’m, uh, I’m with the Resistance.  Just wanted to make sure you were all right.  Ma’am.”  He tipped his hat again.

She paused her packing and turned to face him fully, her arms crossing across her chest with just the smallest of smirks playing at her lips.  “You’re a Ranger?  You don’t look like much of a Ranger.”

“Well, this is what we look like.”  He nodded, trying to keep his feet from fidgeting too much in the dirt.  “Some of us.  Others--”

“Where’s your badge?”

“I uh, you know, it’s on my other shirt.”  He nodded again, then rested his hands on his belt.  “But I have a pistol, and a hat!”

There was a small snarl and a snap of the wolf’s jaws.  The girl just grinned.  “Beebee says that’s not your hat.  Doesn’t smell right.”

“You can understand that thing?”

“Of course.”  Her hand reached down and rubbed behind the wolf’s ears and it turned from a protective beast to a spoiled puppy in the span of a second.  “What’s your name?”

“Finn.”  He said it almost unsure, then again with slightly more confidence.  “My name’s Finn.”

“I’m Rey.”  She gave him a small smile before turning and sticking her foot in the worn stirrup of her saddle.  She pulled herself up onto the tired looking horse and clicked her tongue to get the animal to move.  “Nice to meet you, Finn.  Come on, Beebee.”


	4. Awry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 4th: Awry - Super Saturday word count - - pay pay an escalation cost for each add-on.  
> 400 words - Everything has gone slightly wrong.  
> \+ 200 words - One of your characters needs to clean things up.  
> \+ 200 words - The mood today is a touch manic, but we're not in a panic, just a bit frantic.  
> \+ 200 words - Unfortunately this may not be as easy as it seems. Or is it?

A rail car had been once been tossed from the tracks.  The train had taken a bend too fast and lost its precious cargo, whatever it had been.  The track was rarely used anymore, nothing came from the old mining town since the kyber deposits had all been stripped.  A few people still squatted in the run down buildings, mostly drifters and desperados, but most had moved on to Jakku further west or other, fresher mining settlements.  Jakku was fortunate to have the rail station and access to water, they weren’t going anywhere.  Not to say the place was safe by any means.  The First Order had bloomed out of some seditionists who had lost the great war, but had turned to lawlessness and thievery instead of the halls of government to try and bring about the changes they wanted.

Rey didn’t care about such things.  As long as they stayed out of her business, she’d stay away from them.  Not that she liked the First Order, but she didn’t care much for the greater Republic either.  They had allowed all the little mining towns to fail and the terrorizing the First Order was doing to go unchecked.  Only the town of Jakku seemed to stick up for itself, but they had their own problems.  They ignored the edicts of the Republic and considered themselves independent.  Called itself ‘the Resistance’ like they were resisting anything other than paying their fair share of taxes.  Sounded a lot like sedition to Rey.

“Nope.  Don’t care,”  Rey muttered to herself as she balled up the newspaper she was accidentally reading and pushed it into her stove for kindling.  She had scavenged most of the things in her overturned railcar from Blowback Town and the old mining camps.  The stove, a couple lanterns, a mattress that after all these years had gotten flat and uncomfortable.  She had a nice collection of old pistols too, though most too rusted or otherwise broken to be usable.  Her stick was a better weapon anyway.  Good for smacking unsavories around, poking streams to see how deep they were, digging into holes…

Rey smiled at the wolf next to her as she sat in the shade of the railcar and watched the sky change colors with the setting sun.  She pet her head and scratched behind her ears.  “You’re never gonna leave, right Beebee?”

The wolf sat up and licked Rey’s face before nicking a bit of the food off her cracked porcelain dish.  Rey just laughed as the wolf darted off to the other side of the railcar with her prize, acting like she’d gotten away with something devious.  She was still chuckling at the pup’s behavior as she cleaned up the mess she’d made; tucked the extra food safely away, wiped down the dishes she’d used, shook out the blanket Beebee liked to curl up in.

The rumbling in the ground gave her pause.  It wasn’t like the rumbling from a ground quake, because she’d felt those keenly before with the detonators they’d used to get at the kyber deep in the earth.  It was the hooves beating the dusty trail, several of them and very quickly.  She quickly went around, blowing out her lanterns and pulling in any items scattered outside that would indicate someone was living in this old railcar.  “Beebee!  Get inside!”  she called to the last bit of evidence.

“Quiet now, girl,”  she shushed the animal as they curled up in the corner of the car.  There was a hole just facing the unused tracks that she could peek out of if she dared.  The light was dying into the night, but just barely she could make out a dozen or so horses and their riders.  “First Order,”  she hissed at Beebee, as if the animal had any understanding of desert politics.

The lead horse was draped in their flag, its emblem reminiscent of the old Empire they sought to embody.  Even the rider was dressed in a dark uniform, similar to that of the side that had lost the great war.  The rest were smartly wearing white, a better choice for the unforgiving sun.  They seemed to pass without noticing; perhaps they had not seen the crooked railcar blending in with the dark desert.  But the last rider, riding a sharp looking Akhal-Teke whose black coat seemed to shine even in the twilight, slowed to a trot, falling behind the rest of the group.  This rider was dressed all in black, their cape billowing behind even in the slight breeze.  The horse slowed even further and the head of the rider turned, looking straight at the railcar.

Rey gasped and fell back away from her peeping hole.  Her hands clamped over her mouth and she stared at Beebee, willing the wolf to be just as quiet.  She had not seen the rider’s face, but only because they were so drenched in darkness as if they were wearing a mask.  Perhaps they had been, or perhaps it was some nightmare come to life.  It made her feel cold and alone.  She barely breathed until the clomping of hooves started again, moving out away from her home and fading into the night.

For the first time, Rey wondered if living on her own was the best idea.  To be in a place like Jakku, where Organa and her followers at least protected their own, might be safer.  But Rey didn’t want to get close to people.  Didn’t want to rely on people, even if it would mean no marauding bands of outlaws in the night.  She’d had that before, and they’d left.  Being on her own might be more dangerous, but being around people, getting close to people--that was a different kind of dangerous.

She gave it until the sun had completely gone and the stars had come out before she relit her lantern.  Cautiously she walked the perimeter of her railcar, straining her eyes to see out into the night.  Every movement in the night, every hoot of an owl or rustle of a gopher caused her to grip her stick a bit tighter and press towards where Beebee lay.  Rey didn’t get much sleep that night, and neither did her protective wolf.


	5. Delusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 5th: Delusion - 100 words - I swear it wasn't like this yesterday…

Niima Outpost was an average sort of settlement.  Not as run down as the abandoned shanty towns, but not as nice as somewhere along the cattle drive or near a river.  Its main draw was its central location between caverns known for their kyber deposits.  Folks came to trade, whether in kyber, supplies, or information, but lately it was mostly scraps of what had been left behind.  Rey didn’t like Niima Outpost.  It was where her family had abandoned her as a girl; given her to some fat, ugly feller that treated her no better than a slave.  She’d run first chance she got.

But she liked to vary the places she did business with, didn’t like to be predictable.  Today it was Niima.

The wind shifted and sent a foul blast of decay her way.  Her horse nearly spooked, kicking up a cloud of dust as it refused to move forward.  The hair on Beebee’s neck had visibly raised; her large ears twitching to hear any signs of danger.  Along with the smell and the dread hanging over the town, the place was eerily silent.  Rey tied her horse to a tree, knowing the old boy wouldn’t go any further.  She pulled her stick from its sling on the saddle and tucked it under her arm.

“Come on, Beebee.”

As she ventured further into the outpost, the smells intensified.  It was death and decay and smoldering fires, but not of a lantern that had tipped and caught on something flammable.  It wasn’t the smell of just burnt wood, but of brimstone and cooked flesh.  Rey found the blistering corpse of Unkar Plutt and poked at it irreverently with her stick.  His wounds were like fire, but then also not, as if he had been cooked from the inside.  And there was a slashing wound across his middle, the likes of which Rey was sure she had not seen.  These people, most of them, had been unkind to her, but they didn’t deserve this.

She spared the town a quiet moment, but she still had to eat.  Rey tied a bit of cloth around her mouth and nose and set to work picking through what remained.


	6. Ophelia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 6th: Ophelia - 200 words - A pretty, young character plagued by visions driving them mad, being adorable... and occasionally committing atrocious acts of violence.

There is a land somewhere on the other side of the vast, churning ocean.  It is verdant and full of life.  There are flowers blooming, birds calling, and water that flows freely.  Water that cannot be marked off, won’t be controlled.  There are huts made out of grass and stones and the cooking fires are burning, releasing the flavors of the pots resting over them.  Children run and play, barefoot and carefree.  She runs with them; the wet grass between her toes, the sun on her skin.  There is a looming shadow over the lands of her home.  It spreads out across the entire world.  It engulfs the stars.  It takes and it takes and it takes.  It leaves nothing, not even scraps.

It was the first time she had experienced the dark side, and it would not be the last.  But always there would those who would fight against it.  There were those who carried with them the light.  Those who fought back against the darkness, and for a time, there would almost be peace.

It is coming again.

"Hey, darlin’, you all right?”  Poe muttered, still half-asleep.  His hand reached out to try and grab at her, to pull her back down into the bed, but his eyes were still closed and his face buried in the pillow.  His fingers closed around empty air.

Maz ran her shaking hands over her face and through her hair, but her voice was steady and clear when she answered him.  “It’s nearly morning.  You should gather your company.”

Poe grunted and popped up onto his elbows as he looked towards the one window in the corner.  It was still pitch black with night outside.  “You’re never in this big a hurry to kick me out.”  He sat up slowly, his shoulder popping as his arm twisted and stretched at his side.  His lips found the curve of her bare shoulder and he hummed lightly against her skin.  “C’mon, I don’t think I’m done payin’ for everything I drank last night.”

Mostly immune to his charms, Maz reached over to the table beside the bed and lit a candle.  She watched the harsh glow for a moment as it flickered in the darkness, until her eyes had become adjusted to it.  Poe had rested his grizzled cheek on her shoulder, away from the glare of the candlelight, sighing slightly.  He was a good man, and Maz feared for him, feared for all of them.  She turned abruptly towards him and pulled his face between her hands.  He had a cheeky look on his face at first, but that fell away as Maz continued to look at him so intently.  Her eyes widened as she watched him, searching; her fingers just pressing against his skin.

“I see you, Poe Dameron.”

“Yeah, I see you too, Maz.  Your eyes, they're doin’ that thing again.”. He swallowed thickly.  “You know.”

“We have a chance.  Perhaps.  You, and the one who wants to run, and the scavenger.”  Oh, she could see all three of them, shining in the sun, standing against the consuming darkness.  “The Hermit will help. He won't have a choice soon.”

“We’re lookin’ for him.  We’ve been lookin’ for him.  If you see where he is with those big eyes of yours, you tell me.” After a quiet moment, Poe sighed again and pulled her hands gently away from his face.  He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead.  His lips quirked slightly, smirking in the dim light.  “What am I?”

Maz gave him a knowing, almost teasing smile.  “ _El vaquero_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit what little Spanish I know is what I picked up from my friends back home in Texas. However, while trying to figure out which word to use for 'cowboy,' I found this snippet in an article and _yep, that's it._
> 
>  


	7. Miffed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 7th: Miffed - 100 words

Finn was not used to riding a horse.  He had done it in the past, when it was necessary, but with Hux’s gang he had driven one of the wagon carts.  He had tacked up all the horses, fed and brushed them, but that was all when it came to those animals.  Sitting astride one of the beasts was not something Finn aspired to or enjoyed.  The Resistance’s Rangers didn’t really use wagons.  They carried what little they needed.  They rode hard and long and at the end of it, when Finn just wanted to collapse, they set up camp with all the work that entailed.  It wasn’t that it was any harder than the First Order, or any easier, it was just different.  But in a good way.  Except for the ache in his thighs and the way it seemed to take forever for his legs to unbow.

“What is it we’re looking for anyway?”  Finn asked as he dug a spoonful of beans out of the pot over the fire.  His voice was slightly hushed as he spoke to the others around the campfire.  He had tried asking Poe about it, but their leader had been quiet and distant about the topic.  Now he was standing off by himself brushing down his own horse for longer than was really necessary.

The slightly larger man with a full beard, Snap Wexley, shrugged his shoulders as he scooped his own dinner into his mouth.  “Usually we’re just looking for the Hermit.  Think it’s something more now.”

“The Hermit?”

“Luke Skywalker.”  Jessika Pava, short, young, but quick as a wink, told him with an excited twinkle in her eye.  “He’s the last of the Jedi.  Lots of stories ‘bout why he ran off.  I like to think he found his ladylove and had a whole herd of Jedi babies.”

The other woman of their company, with short, blonde hair and no time for Jess’ childish fantasies, Karé Kun, snapped at her,  “Knock it off.  The General’s been worried sick about him for years.  Can’t be anything good.”

“Isn’t he dead?  Aren’t all the Jedi dead?”  Finn glanced around the camp at the amused and pitying looks he was getting.  Jess was snickering, Karé was shaking her head, while Snap just sighed.

“They’re not all dead,”  Poe’s voice interrupted gruffly as he walked back towards the group.  He snatched the last bowl off the ground and dug into what was left in the pot.  “At least Skywalker isn’t.  Don’t you hens have anything better to do than gossip?”

“Gossipin’ goes with eatin’, boss,”  Jess told him with a cheeky grin on her face.  Finn figured she got away with a lot, being the youngest, but Poe wasn’t having it.

“He ain’t dead,”  he said sharply as a scoop of beans hit the bowl with a wet plop.  “He ain’t off makin’ babies.”  Another scoop and he tossed the spoon back into the pot none too gently.  “Man probably just wants to be left alone.  And he’s earned it.  But we’re gonna drag him back into this mess.”

Poe took his meal and stalked off several paces away from them and plopped down next to a skinny tree.  Finn considered Poe to be a friend, even though they’d hardly known each other for a couple weeks.  Finn had turned up in Jakku after having taken the chance and run from the First Order camp in the night.  What had happened in Tuanul, the razing of that peaceful town, that had been too much for Finn.  He knew he would never be apart of that, and once the First Order figured it out, he knew they’d kill him.  Poe didn’t ask him why he ran, didn’t make him prove he had truly defected, just slapped him on the shoulder and welcomed him to the other side.  Even from the brief time he’d known the Ranger, Finn didn’t think this brooding, surly attitude was much in his character.

“You don’t have to do that.”  Poe pulled the small harmonica from his lips, stopping the quiet little tune he’d been playing.

Finn paused, halfway bent down to pick up the empty bowl at Poe’s feet.  “Just doing my part.”

“Is that what you want, Finn?  You left them because you didn’t want to fight, but we’re gonna fight.  You don’t have to fight for our side, don’t have to fight for any side.  It’s your choice.”

Finn stood up, his fingers fidgeting with the bowl in his hands.  He was terrified of the First Order, and everyone knew it, but he’d never really been given the choice before.  “They’re not going to stop, you know.”  Poe was just nodding, he knew.  “What kind of person would I be if I just ran?”

“Smarter than the rest of us, I reckon.”


	8. Deeply

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 8th: Deeply - 300 words - Character is truly, madly, deeply in love.

Their company came upon the ranch early in the afternoon.  The plan had been to resupply and set out again quickly; try and make it a few more miles before nightfall.  When Finn saw a familiar mountain horse grazing in the corral near the barn and a red-orange wolf rolling in the dirt in front of the house, he brought up maybe staying around the homestead for the night.  Jess agreed and reminded everyone just how great a cook Poe’s father was.  When even Snap started eyeing the chickens pecking away in the dirt hungrily, Poe laughed and conceded to asking his father if they could stay the night.

“I didn’t know you knew Rey,”  Finn said to Poe as they were unsaddling the horses.  “Why didn’t you say anything when you told me to go talk to her back in town?”

Poe pushed his hat up slightly and scratched at his hairline then rubbed his hand across his forehead.  “Rey and I don’t really see eye to eye.  Didn’t want that to cloud your impression of her.”

Finn swallowed slightly as he watched Poe.  That was a real kind thing for him to do.  It spoke to his friend’s character, of which he already thought highly of, that he’d let him form his own opinions and not try to influence them.  Of course, he couldn’t fathom _why_ Poe would dislike Rey.  He opened his mouth to ask Poe what had happened, but Poe just pushed the horses out into the corral and then slapped Finn on the shoulder before walking off.

Rey was scowling at the large group that had invaded the ranch house.  Kes Dameron, as always, was warm and welcoming and happy to feed all the unexpected mouths.  Rey had tried to leave, but Kes wouldn’t let her and nearly made a scene before she agreed to stay.  Ever since he’d caught sight of her, Finn found it hard to stop watching her.  Everytime she looked back at him, he’d quickly look away and find something else to pretend to be looking at.  She sat off on her own while Poe and his crew crowded around the table with their loud and raucous mealtime antics.  Finn started to pull his chair towards her, but she picked up her plate and walked outside, obviously in no mood to share in any dinner conversation.

Finn found her sitting on top of the wooden fence that surrounded the horse corral after the sun had gone down.  The moon and the stars were bright and the lights glowing from the ranch were almost enough, but still he carried a lantern.  He set it down in the dirt as to not shine it in her face and make it feel like some sort of interrogation.  “Hi, again.”

“Finn, right?”

His hand reached up to adjust his hat, remembering the advice Poe had given him before.  But he wasn’t wearing a hat, so his hand just rubbed over his hair.  He nodded and hooked his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans.  His boot dug into the dirt, trying to think of something to say that wasn’t completely awkward.  “How was the bread?”  Nope, definitely going to be awkward.

She squinted at him in the moonlight and hopped off the fence.  “What?”

“The uh, bread you got in Jakku that day.  How was it?”

Her brow quirked up at him.  Confused maybe, amused, or just feeling sorry for him.  “Tasted like stale bread.”

He clicked his tongue and nodded, trying to think of something else to talk about.  “So how do you know Poe?  He said you didn’t really get along.  Did you two, you know… I don’t know why you’re still coming over to his house then… I mean it’s your business--”  Finn’s eyes had started darting across the shadows of the horses, up to the stars, back towards the house as he was speaking, not really wanting to see her face as he rambled.  He knew he was rambling because _of course_ Poe was so charming and she was so pretty and that had to be the reason they didn’t get along now.

“Ew.”  When Finn finally looked back at Rey, she had her arms crossed over her chest and the most disgusted curl to her lips.  “You’re right, it’s my business.”  She huffed and started walking back towards the house, then she stopped suddenly and turned back towards him.  Her finger pointed emphatically at him, the irritation still in her voice.  “I came here to tell Kes to tell Poe that the First Order had burned Niima Outpost to the ground.  That maybe his _Resistance_ would finally do something about it.  But I see he’s more interested in teaching the new recruits how to flirt.”

“Hey that’s not fair--”  Finn started to defend his friend, because he knew how important stopping Hux and his posse was to Poe.  Rey just waved her hand at him and stormed off.  He sighed, saying under his breath as she left.  “I just think you’re real pretty.”

In the morning, Rey, Beebee, and her mangy horse were gone.


	9. Hired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 9th: Hired - 100 words - Today your character hires a new henchman! They seem... "nice."

“There is a growing threat in the West.  Have you felt it?”  The voice was larger than what seemed possible, projected from a body that was equally as large and also not possible.  Standing, looming, as large as a mountain cloaked in dark robes with just the ghastly, bald white head peering out.

“There is no threat, Supreme Leader.  We control what’s left of the kyber mines,”  Hux said standing just a few paces behind a kneeling figure in front of the projection.  The dry wind whipped around them in the twilight, but both men and the projection seemed undisturbed by it.

“I wasn’t asking you,”  the voice hissed before his head snapped back towards the other man draped in black.

“The Force has not given me your visions, Supreme Leader, but I believe I may have found one of the three you seek.  Out in the desert, along the old rail line that leads to Blowback Town.  The scavenger.”  Eager to please, Kylo Ren was.  Determined to show his strength, that he carried none of the weaknesses of his family.

The projection leaned forward, inhumanly bending out over his knees towards the two men.  “Are you certain?”

Kylo Ren swallowed underneath the black mask tied around his face, and then with confidence looked up and nodded.  “Allow me to do this, Supreme Leader.  I will find the scavenger and bring them to you.”

“No, I need you for something else.  Hux, I leave this to you.”

There was a small growl that buffeted his mask as Hux took the step forward to stand next to Kylo.  This was the task he had wanted, that should have been his, not delegated to some would-be General.  Hux would probably just hire flunkies to do it for him anyway.  One of the lesser gangs digging for scraps at his bootheels.  He’d prove it to them, to all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MEH FIRST ORDER.


	10. Irritable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 10th: Irritable - 100 words - A tiny thing. Simply minuscule. But it bothers character. It bothers them so badly and they would do anything to stop it.

“No.  _ No.   _ Beebee, stop!”  Rey huffed at the wolf who kept nipping at her ankles, pushing her in the direction of Jakku.  Rey was walking in front of her horse, guiding it by the reins because her guardian had kept nipping at the horse as well to get it to move the way she wanted.  At first, the wolf had wanted her to go back to the Damerons’, but  _ that _ was out of the question.  Far too many people, not to mention that Finn fellow.

He was a right character.  Handsome.  Awkward.  Charming, but not in the obnoxious way Poe Dameron was ‘charming’.  Handsome.  Rey sighed and shook her head.  “Why do you want to go to Jakku?”

Beebee sat up and barked at her, throwing in a few extra whimpers for effect and a duck of her muzzle to the dirt.

“Our home is plenty safe enough!”  There was another nip at the toes of her boots as Beebee disagreed.  “Stop that!  You just want to see if the butcher has any extra bones.  I know your tricks.”

The wolf snorted and popped back up on all fours, turning her back to Rey.  With her head perched high above her shoulders, she started walking in the direction of Jakku.

“Fine then!  More trouble than you’re worth!”  she shouted after the wolf, but Beebee just kept walking.  Rey let out a loud, irritated groan, but pulled on the horse’s reins and followed.


	11. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 11th: Guilt - Super Saturday word count - - pay an escalation cost for each add-on.  
> 400 words - Character has done something. Something awful. Something chilling. Something that makes them feel very, very guilty. Something that is slowly driving them mad.  
> \+ 200 words - They constantly hear the sound of their crime ring in their ears. Thud. Thud. Thud.  
> \+ 200 words - Character needs to put up a good, cheerful front to remain above suspicion.

Far to the east, but not so far as to be crossing out of the great West, the land had changed slightly.  The air was not as arid, but humid and still just as warm.  The ground sprouted thick blades of green grass and not the tiny, twiggy shrubs that dotted the lands in the opposite direction.  Trees were thick and full, not skinny with stripped bark.  The small ponds had a hard time drying up, constantly refreshed by spring rains and the cricks that formed.  A few years ago, there had been a flood making the streams into rivers and the ponds into lakes.  It had washed away his little hut, but he rebuilt it, made it stronger.

His robes dragged through the swampy grasses, soaking the hem and absorbing slowly upwards.  “Yes, yes, it’ll be a warm day today.  We’ll be all right, stop complaining.”  He found the large pot he used to collect rain water resting on an old stump and picked it up.  His old eyes widened and then crinkled in a smile at the creature sitting just behind.  “Well, hello there!”

The little, grey jack rabbit with its twitching black nose and long, wide ears just sniffed the air as if wondering where the pot of fresh water had gone to.

“I’m Luke Skywalker, nice to meet you!  Come in, come in.  I don’t get many visitors here, but I--”  The old man frowned as the jack rabbit bounded off and went in search of something else.  “What they told you about me, it’s not true!”  he called after the animal, but it didn’t seem to notice.

“It’s not,”  Luke continued to grumble as he took shuffling steps back towards his hut.  He refilled his canteens, then a small basin to wash his hands and his face.  He dabbed the corner of his robe into the water and then wiped some dirt from a large, misshapen, orange-yellow summer squash.  “All you do is complain.  ‘Master Luke, it’s too hot today.  Master Luke, I like being dirty.  Master Luke, why’d you let all those kids die?’ Whine whine whine.  Well I’m tired of it!”

With a sigh, he shook his sleeve back and adjusted the squash on his table.  Set it just right so it wouldn’t be too much in the sun.  “You don’t have to keep reminding me.  I know!  I was there!  Where were you?”

_It’s a squash, Luke._

“It’s still sitting there, judging me!”  Luke huffed and stood up, walking out of his hut.  If the door hadn’t been just sticks tied together with fraying twine, he would have slammed it.  He found his rickety, old chair and sat down, digging his pipe out of his pocket.  He’d long since run out of tobacco and didn’t have any coin left to buy more, or really anything to trade, but he liked the feel of it between his teeth.  If he thought hard enough, he could almost imagine the taste of it in his mouth.  The taste though, that might take him back too far.  Might take him into a memory he didn’t want to face.

_We need to talk._

“Nope.  I don’t want to talk to you.”  Luke shook his head, his teeth clicking against the pipe.  “If I just stay here in my hut everyone else can be happy and no one’s going to get hurt.”

_You old fool, they’re already getting hurt!_

“LALALALALALA.”  Luke put his hands over his ears, not that doing such a thing would help in any way.  The voice he heard wasn’t on the outside, it was in.  “ _You_ call _me_ old!”  he snapped at the voice.  “Pretty sure there are mountains older that you!”

A minute passed and there had been no continued pestering.  Luke pulled his hands away from his head and looked from side to side, then turned and looked behind him.  “They don’t get it,”  he grumbled and went back to chewing on his pipe.  He shouldn’t have been teaching all those kids, showing them things the world wasn’t ready to understand.  Time, he’d been told, was cyclical.  Long ago the Jedi had been numerous and strong and respected, loved even.  There were peaks and valleys to the Jedi, just as there were to everything else.  Right now it was a valley and he and everyone else just had to accept that.

_You’re so far east now…. They’re going the wrong way._

“No!  No!  You stop that right now!”  He jumped up from his rickety old chair, knocking it over into the grass.  He rushed back into his hut and began shoving his meager belongings into a patched, old canvas sack.  “Now you’ve done it, Maz.  Now I have to move again!  Don’t send those kids after me!  I’ll lead them straight into their deaths--you’ll lead them straight into their deaths!”

_...Kids?_

Luke paused, realizing his error.  He had assumed Maz, as old and gifted in the Force that she was, had seen the full vision.  Perhaps she had only seen parts, parts that perhaps he had not seen.  His hands gripped the edge of his small table and he closed his eyes, trying to shut her out.  He existed in the Force, as they all did, but he had pointedly avoided being engaged.  He had deliberately not sought answers, guidance, companionship, or peace.  The Force held nothing for him anymore, except guilt and agony.  Still, the visions had come of the young people seeking him out, of the coming storm they would face.  So he had run, well, more like a swift walk at his age.  As far as he could in the opposite direction.

He drew in a large breath and opened his eyes.  In a battle of wits, he might lose to the old dame, but when it came to the Force, despite her vast experience, he was stronger and more in control.  At least he had been, before.

“Come on, Wilson.”  He picked up his misshapen squash companion and tucked it under his arm.  Perhaps they’d head south this time.


	12. Reject

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 12th: Reject - 100 words - "I reject your reality, and substitute my own."

The horses were stomping and skittish upon reaching Niima Outpost.  No one blamed them for it.  The air was heavy set with flies and carrion birds, and it seemed a pack of coyotes and been through at some point.  The Rangers left them tied up out past the signpost, partly to calm their nerves, and partly to keep them from stamping through any tracks.  Snap was methodically walking the perimeter of the town, searching for clues.  He was the best tracker Poe had ever seen, so he let the man be and do his own thing.  The right thing to do would be to lay the bodies to rest, build them a funeral pyre, but with so many, it would have to be a communal event.  While Snap scoured the town, section by section, the other four pulled the bodies together and set them alight.  It was back breaking, sweaty, disgusting work, but they all agreed it was best if someone like Unkar Plutt didn't tarry between this life and the next.

Not that Poe was any more superstitious than most folk.  There were indeed things beyond his understanding.  Hell, Maz Kanata was an enigma all her own.  Not that he really thought some mystical energy field was controlling his destiny, but there was no denying there was  _ something _ .  Sometimes it was better just to go along when she got one of her 'feelings' than to argue.  And she wasn't the only one.  Lately it seemed more and more people were having 'feelings'.

"Is this really what we should be doing?"  Jess asked as she pulled her gloves off and wiped the sweat from her brow.  "We're supposed to be looking for the Hermit, not the First Order."

"We're still the law in these parts,"  Poe replied as he spit on the ground.  Not that it did much, the awful taste of this place was still stuck to his teeth.  He grumbled at them to get back to work, then headed towards where Snap was crouched down sniffing a leaf or something.

It was a whistle, just subtle enough.  Low and just pitched upwards at the end.  Poe stopped mid-step; he'd know that note anywhere.  He could almost hear the click of her tongue that followed and the rustle of cloth and leather.  He swallowed as his eyes found the cloud of dust being kicked up and though he doubted the whistle he heard, he couldn't doubt the sound of hooves racing across the dirt.  He took off towards the fences, his hat flying off his head as he ran, his bandana falling from around his mouth and flailing around his neck.

In one quick stroke, he had pulled the knot from the wood fence.  His steed, a jet black quarter horse with just a splash of white painted on his face, was already moving when Poe took one step and then another, his hips swinging upward and into the saddle.  The voices of his team were calling behind him, confused as to where he was taking off to, but his focus was on chasing down the ghost.

She was a chestnut Arabian, lean and oh so fast.  She listened to no one, heeded no calls, except those of Shara Bey, his mother.  Shara had been the law when he was a boy, but was shot down whilst chasing a group of bandits that had been attacking wagon trains heading west.  It was a loss Poe had never quite recovered from.  And yet, here she was, sprinting across the dusty plains.  He pushed  _ Black One _ harder, faster, they needed to catch this apparition.

"Ma!"  he shouted, though it was doubtful his voice could be heard through the cloud of dust or over the thundering of the hooves.  He'd never be able to catch her; she'd always been faster, and it wasn't just her horse.  Shara had been a better rider, better lawman.

She stopped up on the ridge, only about thirty feet away in a straight line, but to reach her, he'd have to ride around.  She'd be gone again by the time he got there.  So Poe stopped as well, horse and rider breathing heavily as he looked up at her, a vision.  While he was worn from the hard ride, she appeared relaxed and composed, sitting high in her saddle with her dark, wavy hair moving around her face in the gentle breeze.  He blinked and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand; he knew she couldn't be real.

"Be strong,  _ mijo _ .  Your friends will need your strength."  Her words were on the wind somewhere.  Her voice was clear in his head, but the image of her didn't move, wasn't speaking.

_ Black One _ stamped left and right after a moment, uncertain perhaps.  Poe wondered if the horse saw what he saw or thought his rider had gone mad.  "Ma!"  he shouted again.  "Come on home, Ma!"

Shara smiled down at him, warm as he remembered, then looked out across the open lands around them.  Her hands lifted, pulling up on her reins and guiding her chestnut horse away.  Poe gave his quarter horse a quick jab with his heels, pushing them forward to go around and up.  When he made it to the top of the ridge, she had gone.  There was no trace of her on the plains, or in the hills.  There weren't even hoof marks other than his own.

When he finally trotted back into the razed town, it seemed his team had already finished their tasks without him.  They were waiting for him, already on their horses and ready to leave this town of the dead behind them.  "Everything all right, Poe?"  Snap asked.

Poe glanced back over his shoulder, wondering if the ghost of his mother had returned, but she hadn't.  "Yeah.  Find anything?"

"There was an old man in the center of town.  At least, I think that's what he was."  Snap frowned, trying to keep a hold of his wits.  "Pretty sure he was tortured for information.  They headed back east when they were done.  Seems they didn't take anything though.  Place was picked clean by scavengers after they had cleared out."

Poe paused and looked back at Snap.  His brows pinched together in thought and then he glanced over towards Finn.  "Rey said she was here?  Saw the place with her own eyes?"

Finn nodded.  "Yeah, must have been right after it happened.  Said the uh, bodies were still fresh."

He nearly laughed as he shook his head.  They'd called her that before.  Scavenger.  "Always knew there was something a little off about her."

"What?"  Finn said defensively, sitting a bit forward on his horse.

Poe took his hat from Snap as his friend brushed past on his horse.  As he placed it back home on his head, his eyes scanned west and east, his horse trotting in a circle as he decided.  “We’re going back to Jakku.  I’ve got a--”  He groaned under his breath even as the words left his mouth.  “Feeling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose it wouldn't be a story of mine without a Shara Bey chapter!


	13. Un-right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 13th: Un-right - 100 words - Character is trying to do something that doesn't normally work in their world. They are absolutely convinced that it will work.

They had stopped for a quick drink and a rest.  Rey laid out the last of the vegetable scraps Kes had given her for her horse to pick through.  Beebee was busy jumping in and out of the water of the quickly moving stream, chasing the small fish.  This brook would join with the main river several miles down the way and flow past Jakku.  Rey still wanted to go back home for a spell, but her wolf had been stubborn about the whole thing and so there they were, following the water trail back to town.

As horse and wolf relaxed under a scraggly tree, out of the afternoon sun, Rey took her stick and headed upwards.  It was a bit of a canyon that the water had cut through.  Perhaps a thousand years ago it had been a raging river, but now was just this skinny little stream.  She found a bush with red berries, a fine prize for this little trek.  Carefully she pulled them from their prickly vines and shoved them into the sack draped over her shoulder.  Just off to her left, back ten feet or so, a twig cracked.

Rey frowned and her fingers gripped tightly around her stick as she stood back up.  A rustle off to her right.  There were at least two of them.  It seems they had waited until she had separated from Beebee.  Well, they weren't entirely foolish.

The first one came at her from behind, but she dug one end of her stick straight into his gut.  The second got a thwap to the face as he rushed her.  And there was a third--okay, so more than two... more than four.  Once she had stomped on the boot of the man trying to grab onto her, she put her fingers to her lips and let out a long, shrill whistle.

"Go on, grab her!"  One of the men shouted while he held his bleeding nose.

They tried to surround her as she waved her stick in their direction to keep them at bay.  They were backing her up towards the drop off.

"No guns!"  Another swatted at his partner.  "Hux said alive!"

Rey scowled.  These men, their accents, their clothing--they were local thugs, hired guns, not First Order troops.  Still, they had her cornered.  She'd have to fight through all of them, or jump.  She knew Beebee must have heard her, but she didn't hear the wolf's snarl or see her streak of red fur.  Her guardian wouldn't make it in time.

Her eyes darted out off the edge of the ridge.  Her sad, tired, old horse was standing idly below.  It had to be thirty to forty feet down.

_ That's a terrible idea, Rey.  Don't do that.  Don't do that.  _  Her thoughts were zipping through her head.  Terrible, suicidal thoughts.   _ Fight!  Wait for Beebee!  Fight! _

One of the men had a club and raised it to come at her.  She screamed and turned and jumped.

The first twenty feet she dropped like a stone, and then something caught her.  Perhaps it was an updraft, but it felt like a giant hand guiding her down until her ass dropped squarely into her saddle.  Her breath left her mouth in quick, shocked puffs.  Her horse was equally as shocked and started to kick its hooves out, but Rey's thighs clamped down and held on.  She clapped the reigns and kicked her mount, pushing it forward.  Again her fingers found her lips and she let out another note, this time meaning run.


	14. Montage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 14th: Montage - 300 words - Today your character is deep inside their own head, and, geez it's freaky in there. Show me the montage!

The Force had always been a companion to Maz.  Even as a child, it spoke with her, guided her, protected her.  While in this age of the world, a person was lucky to make it to middle-age, downright blessed to die of old age, Maz had lived more lifetimes than she could count anymore.  She had seen the death of her clans, the one she was born to and the ones she chose, of countless others she had loved.  She had seen Empires rise, Republics crumble, armies march across the land, and lone monks destroy those armies.  And then she had come out to these lands, new and untouched that held the promise of untapped fortune.  She had set up her cantina, her oasis to feed and water the weary traveler.  Her business ventures had expanded somewhat, but that's always what it had boiled down to: a place to relax, to find comfort.

For a time, the Force had quieted and allowed her and the rest of the world to follow their own course.  Whether or not the world was better off for it was another question entirely.

Her feet lifted and pushed, rocking her back and forth on the wooden rocking chair on her tavern's porch.  There was a lace fan in her hand that she waved gently every few seconds, just pushing a quick breeze through the warm air.  The sun was high in the sky, but there were dark, menacing clouds on the horizon.  There were two vague shapes along with the one she recognized.  Confident and proud, standing with his thumbs hooked into his belt, his hat cocked just so, and a smirk playing on his lips.  The one she had dubbed  _ el vaquero _ .

"Tell me about the other two,"  her voice hummed in the air.

Luke turned away and huffed, his arms crossing uncomfortably across his chest.  "No.  I am not getting involved.  I thought I shut you out."

"Must be pretty exhausting for an old man.  Tracking across back country without a horse.  Living off only what you can catch."  The rocking stopped and her fan snapped shut as she sat up straighter and stared at Luke's back.  "You're easy to find when you're sleeping so deeply."

"One of 'em's Shara's son,"  Luke grunted, his hand jerking slightly to wave at the shimmering vision.

"Yes, point out the obvious one."  One perfectly sculpted eyebrow cocked upwards at his back.

"I don't know.  Sleep with the rest of the town.  I'm sure you'll find the other two."

Her lips curved into an amused grin and she laughed.  There wasn't any malice behind Luke's words; he was simply a grumpy old man.  Pained, with every right to be, but still a grouchy old codger.  "They're going to fight, whether or not you're there to guide them.  I know you can see it.  They stand a far better chance with you."

There was a slow, staggering breath and when Luke finally turned to face her, there were large tears streaking down his wrinkled face.  "How do I teach them to kill the boy I loved like a son?"

"His mother still has hope he can be saved.  Do you not agree with her?"

Luke did not answer.  It seemed he no longer dared to hope for such a thing.  The clouds were getting closer though, the sun's light beginning to fade behind them.  "The scavenger, the girl, she's in danger.  He'll see in her a potential, and I'm afraid of what he'll do.  The other--the one who wants to run--he's not a coward.  He's very brave.  He just doesn't know it."

"Who are they, Luke!"  She was on her feet, taking a step closer to him.

"It's too late now, Maz.  You'll find him with your cowboy."

The clouds had overtaken the sun.  Luke and the three mirage-like shapes had vanished.  When her eyes opened, it was to hooves stomping in the dirt and the bells of the town tolling.

"Those beasts,"  Maz growled as she stood from her chair.  "They're here!"


	15. Ides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 15th: Ides - 100 words - They're after you. They're coming to kill you. You're sure of it! It's an evil plot to assassinate ~~Ceasar~~ your character!

They came in guns blazing; the ground was shaking under the stampede of hooves.  Kylo Ren, in his black, tattered cloak, and his followers, in their white uniforms, all on their black horses.  His soldiers spread out, a corralling formation to keep anyone from leaving or going back inside for weapons.  Shooting those that tried.  They all had their rifles and pistols trained on the townsfolk unlucky enough to be caught outside.

Maz seethed from the porch outside her tavern.  Her fingers gripped the wooden railing until splinters dug into her skin.  Kylo Ren was shouting for something, demanding, he wanted Luke Skywalker or anyone else who thought themselves important enough for the Force to consider.  It seemed whoever held the young outlaw’s reins fancied another purge, another war.

Stepping out from behind a building on the far end of town, Maz’s eyes caught Rey leading her horse with her faithful companion at her side.  Quickly, her fingers rapped on the shutter of the window.  “Solo!”  she hissed through the window.  “Stop cheatin’ at cards and get your son in line!”

The sigh was audible as were the choice words Han had for this situation.

Ducking behind tied up horses and sticking to the edges of the buildings, Maz avoided the soldiers’ gazes as she made her way towards Rey.  When she got close enough, she let out a low, short whistle, trying to grab their attention.  The wolf turned first, her nose sniffing the air.  “Rey, come on, dear.  Get off the road.”

“What’s going on?”  she asked once she’d ducked back with Maz behind an abandoned produce cart.

“Some bad men come to stir up trouble.  Don’t want you involved.”

There was a little smirk on Rey’s face as she tried to duck her head back around to get a look, but Maz pulled her back.  “I can take care of myself, Maz.”

Maz straightened and cocked an eyebrow at the girl, studying her in a way she hadn’t quite before.  “Perhaps.”

“BEN!”  There was an unmistakable shout from the center of town.  In the middle of the trampled down, dirt road that ran through the middle of the town, old Han Solo stood facing down his only son.

Again Rey tried to duck out and look, but Maz’s hand clamped firmly around her arm and kept her in place.  “What’s Han doing?  He’s gonna get himself killed!”

“That creature, Kylo Ren, he used to be Ben Solo.”  Maz frowned as she found that she too could no longer look away from the drama unfolding.  “Han and Leia’s son.”

“Han never told me he had a son.”

For a moment, the imminent shoot out was pushed to the side.  “How do you know Han?”  As far as Maz knew, Rey kept almost completely to herself.  She purchased a few things from merchants in town, but didn’t make small talk.  Some people had a vague idea of where she lived, but not enough to pinpoint.  The only people she seemed to know more than just in passing were the Damerons, though it wasn’t something Maz had ever talked about with Poe.

“How do you think I got  _ Falcon _ ?”

Maz pushed Rey to the side and glanced back at her horse.  The mangy, old creature was neck deep into a basket of vegetables.  So deep that when he pulled out to root around for something different, the basket was stuck to his face.  “ _ That’s.  The.  Falcon? _  He always said someone stole it.  Not sure why anyone would steal that old horse.”

“I won him fair and square!”  Rey shot back indignantly.  Then she added under her breath,  “He’s a good horse.”

Any further conversation on how a horse once famous for helping run wagons full of moonshine stopped as the ground under them rumbled once more.  Horses, fast and familiar, were on their way.  And as she watched the cloud of dust approaching, suddenly Maz felt as if it was all going horribly wrong.  “You should go now, before this gets worse!”  But when Maz turned back towards Rey, the girl was gone.  She had taken off towards the confrontation, stick in hand, wolf at her heels.  Horse left stealing vegetables.

“Come on home, Ben.  Enough of this.”  Though his words were kind and almost pleading, Han’s hand was just hovering over his pistol, ready to draw.

As Rey approached and Maz behind her, Kylo Ren pushed the hood of his cloak backwards.  He had grown, everyone could see it.  Not the lanky boy they remembered, but the man, though dark and twisted, he had become.  “I’ve come for the girl,”  he said as he looked away from his father and towards the scavenger.

“What?”  Rey stopped, confused.

Maz took the opportunity and stepped in front of the young scavenger.  Her eyes glanced down at Beebee, knowing the wolf would do her part as well.  “This game has been played before, boy.  I have seen it.  You cannot win.”

“The  _ witch _ ,”  he sneered, glaring at Maz.  “The last of the heretics.”

“Ben!  Your mother and I, we still have hope!”

“Ben is dead!”  Kylo Ren turned sharply and shouted across the wide space between him and his father.  His pistol was out of the holster before any had a chance to notice, before even Han Solo could draw.  The shot echoed off the wooden facades and the canyons beyond.

A sign on on the smith’s shop just to the right of Han exploded off its hinges, splinters raining down to the ground.  The bullet had missed its mark.  Maz stood with her arm outstretched towards Han, breathing heavily.

“ _ Witch! _ ”  he screamed again, but his cry was drowned out by the thundering arrival of Poe and his Rangers.

Another shot.  This one without the grandstanding or talking or demanding.  The bullet left Poe Dameron’s pistol aimed straight for the heart of the beast in his town.

Another shot missed its mark.

There were more shots fired from all parties, too much for Maz to keep track of now.  The apparent duel between father and son had become an all out war.  Screaming and groaning and snarling and curses and prayers.  “Get the girl!”  Kylo Ren shouted and Rey screamed and tried to fight them off.  It was all a mess, a haze, fading lights with their faraway voices.  How long the fight had gone on, Maz wasn’t sure.  It could have been minutes, maybe longer.  It seemed faster than it should have been, but then also longer than should have been possible.

“Maz!  Maz!”  Poe skidded to the ground next to her and lifted her up into his arms.  His hat was missing, his face bloodied, and when his hands reached up to brush across her face, they were stained red with blood, but not his.

“All these years…”  She smiled, it didn’t even really hurt that much.  It hurt more to see the pain on Poe’s face, to hear the anguished cries around them, to not know how this story would end.  “It’s not the worst way to go.”

“You’re tellin’ me you’ve lived a thousand years and one bullet is enough to take you out?”

“Head east.  Take Rey and find Luke.”  With the last of her strength, her fingers curled around his.  “Trust the Force.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are coming out a bit slower than I wanted, but we'll get through them. ;D


	16. Sunshine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 16th: Sunshine - 200 words - Everything is just. So. GREAT! Don't you agree?!?!?!?!?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey backstory.

In the summer of the sixteenth year after his wife had passed, Kes Dameron had been surveying the lands he owned, overseeing the few people he employed to work.  He mostly farmed, but there were a few animals on his property.  There had been a problem with wolves in the past.  Once he had a loyal hound, but that was two winters ago that animal had passed.  Perhaps the predators had become bold again because he had lost a whole coup one evening.

Had hadn’t seen them, though every so often he’d spot tracks.  Fewer now as they moved further away from the cooler months.  Perhaps there were better pickins elsewhere.  Nevertheless, he trotted next to where the hens were picking at the dirt, pair of roosters strutting nearby.  The fowl scattered their fat little bodies away at the horse’s hooves.  Kes dismounted and poked his head over the fence that surrounded the little lean-to that constituted a hen house.  There were a few hens still huddled on their nests, but one thing that made him look twice was the red little fuzzball curled up practically under one of his hens.

“Well, look at you, little runt.”  Kes picked up a stick and poked at the animal, trying to get it to move.  But the animal just unfolded itself and stretched, letting out a large yawn.  It waggled a bit and nipped at the stick, thinking that perhaps this newcomer had come to play.  Kes stood a bit dumbfounded for a moment.  It was tiny, quite skinny even with the poof of its coat, pink tongue hanging out of its mouth--a wolf pup.  Abandoned, somehow otherwise separated from its pack, or perhaps it just liked sleeping with hens rather than eating them, Kes didn’t know.  The pup bit at the stick again and tried to tug it from his grasp.  He was surprised the creature was still alive, but then there was something a little odd about this one.

“Something special about you, I think.  But you should go on, get back to your pack.  Just stay away from here.”  Quickly, he grabbed the pup by the scruff before it could nip at him instead of the stick and set the animal on the dirt outside the fence.  He took the stick and chucked it away from the hen house.  He turned and gripped the reins on his horse to walk it back towards the house.

He had made it a few steps before a ball of fur rushed past him and dropped the stick at his feet.  The pup sat back on its hind legs looking up at Kes, tongue hanging out of its mouth.  Kes swore the little brat was giving him the most shit-eating of grins.  Reminded him of his son.  The farmer pushed his hat up and rubbed at his forehead.  “Oh, this is a bad idea, Dameron,”  he scolded himself.  “Literally inviting the wolf into your hen house.”

The next year, Kes found another abandoned pup.  This time it was a tender-aged girl also near-starved and looking far worse than his pup had.  She was barefoot with cuts to her hands and feet, curled around what must have been an empty canteen.  The wolf, now grown and only slightly more obedient, nudged the girl with her nose and licked at her face.

“Brought another stray in, Pop?”  his son asked as he pulled the kettle off the stove and poured a cup of coffee.

Kes had laid the girl out on a cot, feeding spoonful by spoonful of water into her mouth.  Occasionally he managed to get her to swallow a soaked bit of bread.  The wolf was sitting right next to the girl, her muzzle resting just on the cot.  Kes glanced back to his son, looking fine with the deputy’s badge pinned to his vest.  “When you going back to Hosnian City?”

“Few days.  Leading wagon trains back and forth ain’t very glamorous, but pay’s all right.”  He took a long drink of his coffee and gestured vaguely towards the girl.  “What you gonna do if she dies?  Pay for her to be buried outside Jakku?  Put her next to Ma?”

“When did you get so cynical?  If you hate city life so much, just come back home.”

Poe scoffed, he didn’t want to be a farmer.  It was obvious he didn’t care for life in the Capital either.  “I guess I’ll go check on the livestock.  Come on, Beebee.”  But the wolf didn’t budge from her spot, even as Poe slapped his thigh and let out a short whistle.  “Fine.  Do what you want.”

The door slammed shut as he left.  “By the time I was his age I was married and had a son and a farm, and he still acts like a child,”  Kes grumbled, but kept on feeding his newest charge the precious spoonfuls of water.

Rey stayed for awhile.  As soon as she could stand, she wanted to leave, more like bolt away as fast as she could.  It was the wolf, Kes realized, that kept her around.  And when she finally convinced Kes she needed to leave, needed to be on her own, it was the wolf that went with her.


	17. Madlad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 17th: Madlad - 100 words - Your lads (or lasses) have run simply mad! Such crazy and out of control antics may well spell the end of life as we know it!

“Poe!  Poe, he took her!”  Finn shouted as he ran up, nearly sliding to the ground near where Poe was cradling Maz’s lifeless body. Finn winced down at his friend.  “Oh.  Oh man… I’m sorry.”

He took a step back as Poe stood, hefted the body up, and with halting steps, carried her towards the undertaker’s.  “Get everyone ready,”  Poe mumbled as he passed.

Finn turned and found Snap, Poe’s long-time right-hand man.  “That means we’re going after them, right?”

“Yep.  Kylo Ren’s long overdue his date with the hangman, but after today, I doubt he’ll make it.”  Snap cast a long glance at Finn, his head cocked to the side.  “You comin’ with us?  Could be not everyone comin’ back.”

Finn swallowed.  He’d been running from the First Order for what felt like the longest time, though it’d really only been a couple months.  He didn’t want to fight, didn’t want to kill people, but like he’d told Poe, the First Order wasn’t ever going to stop.  Someone had to stop them.  And that monster had taken Rey.  After Maz had fallen, Kylo Ren had walked over to Rey and before anyone could reach him, waved his hands like he was casting some dark spell.  She fell right into his arms like a rag doll.  In the calamity of the shoot out, he’d gotten onto his black horse and rode clean out of town, uncaring of the posse he’d left behind.

“He’s got Rey.  I have to save her.”

Snap smirked and punched him in the shoulder.  “Been awhile since I’ve seen someone fight for love.  Usually it’s bullshit reasons like honor and revenge.”

“Is he gonna be okay?”  Finn jerked his head towards the direction Poe had gone.

But Snap just shrugged his shoulders as he went back to reloading his pistol.  “His girl, his sister, and his dog?  Would you be okay?”

Finn’s brows pinched together in confusion, but Snap didn’t stick around to answer any more questions he might have.  Instead, he glanced around the aftermath of the brawl until he found Han hunched over a wolf.  His focus had been trained on Rey, but the memory of her pet leaping up at Kylo Ren and then being thrown back was coming back to him.  “You know, Solo,”  Finn started as he walked up.  “The longer I’m in this town, the more convoluted everyone’s story gets.  Does this dog belong to Rey or Poe?  And are they really related?  If y’all are pulling my leg again…  It’s really not the time!”

Han was shaking his head as he stroked the animal’s head and tried to give her a bit of water from his canteen.  Finn was pretty sure he heard the beginnings of a chuckle, but it quickly died out.  “First of all, this is a wolf, not a dog.  Second of all, animals like her choose who they follow, not the other way around.”  With a sigh, he got to his feet, and he too slapped Finn on the shoulder.  “You seen my horse?”

Exasperated, Finn walked hurriedly towards the undertaker’s shop.  He pulled his hat from his head before he walked through the open door.  He caught just the end of Poe pressing his lips to the top of of Maz’s head before overhearing him ask the undertaker to hold the funeral pyre for a few days, until he got back.  The undertaker didn’t make any promises.  Poe replaced his hat on his head and strode outside, Finn followed.

“You comin’?”  Poe asked him as he grabbed  _ Black One’s  _ reins and started pulling the horse towards the rest of his company.

“Of course.  Why didn’t you tell me Rey was your sister?”

The hard look on his face broke just for a second as he glanced down at his boots, his lips curling into just the hint of a smile.  “Is that what they told you?”  He stuck his boot in the stirrup and pulled himself up onto his horse.  “He’s not that far ahead.  We can catch him.”

As Poe’s horse took the several steps away to lead the pack, Finn tossed his hands into the air.  It seemed no one had any straight answers.  Whether they weren't being straightforward for a reason, or just messing with him, he couldn’t tell.

“Come on, kid!”  Han shouted at him as he road past on Rey’s horse, dust kicking up behind him.


	18. Invasive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March 18th: Invasive - Super Saturday word count - - pay an escalation cost for each add-on.  
> 400 words - Slithering, seeping, into your soul. Crawling, creeping, out of control. Tricky thoughts seep into your brain, but it's okay, you're already insane.  
> \+ 200 words - Go on, revel in your madness  
> \+ 200 words - But, oopsies! It's a bit infectious today!  
> \+ 200 words - About halfway through your story something perfectly normal happens and it sets your character off.

Blowback Town was a mess of crumbling facades, half-standing buildings, and weeds growing up through the things that were still standing.  Vultures had made their nests in the stone bell tower, a telling sort of sign.  It was late evening and what remained of the soldiers had set up in what used to be the tavern, smoke coming from the half chimney.

“Looks like your mercs failed, Hux,”  Ren sneered as the red-haired soldier swung open the doors of the messed and broken tavern and walked in.  He kicked the chair over that he had been resting his feet on and gestured to a corner where a girl was leaned up against the wall, hands bound, still unconscious.  A cruel little smirk formed on Ren’s pale features.  “Don’t worry, I got the witch  _ and _ the scavenger.”

“How’s the witch supposed to tell us where Skywalker is when she’s dead?  Idiot.”  Hux grumbled his insult under his breath, but Ren still heard it.

“We can use her.  We don’t need the old man." 

The angry, venomous look that was always so common on Hux’s features stared down Ren.  They were meant to be equals, yet they still fought like competing children for their Leader’s favor.  Hux thought Ren spoiled and reckless.  Ren thought Hux too rigid, and yet also unpredictable.  After a moment of staring, Hux pulled down on his jacket and stood up a bit straighter.  “Fine.  When your plan fails, Ren, I’ll make sure the Supreme Leader knows why.”

 

 

Poke.  Poke.  Poke.

Rey flinched back from the nuisance that was pushing at her shoulder.  Her muscles were rigid and achey and her stomach grumbled from lack of food.  “Beebee, stop,”  she muttered and tried to push her hands toward the thing that kept poking her.

Except when she opened her eyes, it wasn’t the familiar wolf sitting next to her, but a hunched old man wrapped in a tattered, grey robes.  She could only see his scraggly beard sticking out from under his hood.  Once she had an awareness of him however, his hand pulled back from pushing her and he started to move away.

“Hey!  What’s going on?”

The man in the robes paused and wobbled slightly, as if he was trying to decide to stay and have a conversation or keep moving away.  Despite Rey’s pleas, his decision it seemed was to leave her to her fate.

Rey gasped awake at the feeling of cool water being pressed against her lips.  Her muscles still ached, and what she had failed to notice before was that her hands were bound in her lap.  The coarse rope cut into her skin, little poking fibers causing extra irritation.  Her eyes darted back and forth, but she didn’t see the old man, only the blob of blackness in front of her.  As her eyes blinked and focused, she saw he was wearing a tattered black cloak pulled over his head, but not covering it completely.  He had pale skin, not burned or darkened by the harsh sun; hair, dark like his clothing, was long and oddly well-groomed.

When she turned her head away from the cup he was trying to feed her, he pulled back slightly.  “I’m sorry for the harsh treatment.”

“Then untie me.”  Rey’s eyes followed him as he stood up and set the cup on a nearby table.  The room was dim, lit only by a few candles, and empty.

“You took out all the mercenaries my associate sent.  I don’t want to hurt you, Rey, but I think you’ve been told lies about us.”  He turned, his face now in the shadow as he watched her.

“How do you know my name?”

“I’ve seen it.”  He crouched again, his face once more illuminated by the candles.  He was staring at her quite intently, looking, searching.  “The little hovel you call a home, but that’s not where you belong.  And not with those malcontents in Jakku.  You want to be on the coast, near the water, a land full of green and not the dust of the desert.”

Rey’s teeth clenched together.  “What are you doing?”  Even as she said it, she could feel him.  He was there, just in the corner of her mind, peeking around the curtain.

“I can take you there.  We could go together.”  He was trying to be nice, trusting, convincing, but Rey could feel his lies.  His words were soaked in venom, not honey.  “Maz never told you about the Force.  I could--”

“You killed her!”  Rey shouted.  Maz had always been kind to her, though a bit strange.  It seemed it didn’t matter if Rey avoided people--avoided getting attached to them.  People still died and it still hurt.

“No,”  there was a sinister sort of smirk on his face as he said it.  “Poe Dameron fired the shot that killed the witch.”

She was breathing heavily, her heart racing with panicked adrenaline.  Another shot had been fired before that.  “You tried to kill your own  _ father _ ,”  she spat back at him.

A slow sneer formed on Kylo Ren’s face as his teeth sunk down into his lip.  “He would have disappointed you.”

There was a battle happening.  One not just with words, but with thoughts wrapped in barbed wire.  It was a battle Rey didn’t know how to fight, but she had to learn by doing.  She had to trust her instincts, as they had not let her down before.  Ren was trying to pull something out of her, secrets she had long buried.  Why he would want those things, she had no idea.  But they were hers, not his, not anyone’s.  She pushed back against him, but more than that she broke through his own barrier and found her way into his thoughts.

There was a child who couldn’t figure out if he was happy or displeased.  Who loved his parents, and at the same time resented them.  There were others there lurking, just at the far end.  Ren wasn’t the only one disappointed with some of the pieces of his life.  The others were quietly shaking their heads, displeasure on their features.  She only felt them for a second, and then they were gone in a huff of darkness.

“You’ve disappointed so many people.”

Kylo Ren leaned back; he looked unsure of what she was saying--surprised maybe.  Perhaps more surprised that she had repelled him from her mind and had somehow found her way into his.

“Your grandfather most of all.”  Rey said it with all the venom he had drenched his soul with.  She knew it would hurt--wanted to stick the dagger right through his dark heart.

The words had knocked him backwards.  His cloak flourished around him as he got back to his feet in a huff.  His teeth were clenched and his shoulders practically shook with the anger Rey could feel rolling off of him.  She was not deterred by his fury.  Rey starred the monster down as if daring him to challenge what she saw.

With another twist of his cloak, Ren turned and stalked away from her.  A chair hit the wall, and then another, before she could hear a door slamming shut.  Now that he was gone, she could work on getting herself out of this mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long for me to get back to this!


End file.
